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From the Fonz to Fan Expo Henry Winkler keeps things cool and hot

Author of the article:

Dana Gee

Publishing date:

November 8, 2017 • 5 minute read

Henry Winkler is in Vancouver for Fan Expo Nov. 10-12 at the Convention Centre. A man of many showbiz hats Winkler still loves The Fonz the iconic character that made Winkler a star.Chris Pizzello/ Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

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Probably one of the most telling signs that you are a star is if you open your front door on Halloween and there stands a bunch of versions of yourself.

That is a scene that actor/producer/director/writer/author Henry Winkler, a.k.a. The Fonz, certainly recognizes.

Winkler, 72, delivered the all-powerful Zen greaser on the hugely popular 1950s-set sitcom Happy Days, which ran for a decade from 1974 to 1984.

Everyone from kindergarten children to care home residents knew that “aaaaay,” was the Fonz’s catchphrase and that he had a way with women, cars and jukeboxes.

“I love him,” said Winkler about the character that gave him a career and coaxed him out of his shell.

“I was a wimp. I wouldn’t confront anybody,” said Winkler who grew up in Manhattan. “You know I stood in front of the mirror to comb my hair and I ran out of the room because there was another guy there.”

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The Happy Days gang, from top to bottom, Ron Howard, Donny Most, Anson Williams and Henry Winkler.

Fonzie was such an icon that other icons came to see Winkler and his fellow crew and cast members make the hit show.

John Lennon brought his young son Julian to the set and Winkler, a self-professed huge music fan, was dying to talk to the Beatle.

“He was very shy and he wouldn’t speak,” said Winkler about Lennon. “I kept asking him about his solo album and eventually got to the primal scream on the song Mother and he opened like a garden. That was the key, talk about his music.”

On another occasion another of the Beatles showed up with a colourful friend in tow.

“Ringo came with a very famous drummer named Keith Moon,” said Winkler about the Beatles’ drummer and The Who drummer, a well-known drunken mad man.

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So did Keith Moon behave himself?

“No, but it didn’t matter. He was Keith Moon,” said Winkler.

While we are talking Beatles, Winkler also had a brush with Paul McCartney.

“I was walking down the street with my wife and we saw Paul McCartney who looked at me and said: ‘The Fonz,’” said Winkler adding his best Liverpudlian accent for affect.

“It’s funny, when you are starting out you don’t think anybody knows who you are or can see you because you are working on a sound stage that is soundproof with a big door you have to pull chains in order to close it. You spend a lot of time there,” said Winkler over the phone from Los Angeles recently. “Then you go out in the world and you find out ‘oh my God people are watching.’ It is amazing.”

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People were, and have, watched Winkler’s work so much over the years that they are willing to line up and get an autograph and picture with him at events like the Fan Expo from Nov. 10 to 12 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. A star-studded celebration of pop culture fandom, gaming, comics and some great dressing up makes the expo event truly a fan fun fest. Winkler will be on hand for the whole weekend. And yes it is OK to bring up the whole “jump the shark” thing.

In case you don’t know, that is the popular expression that refers to a ridiculous or over-the-top event that marks the decline of a TV series. It refers to a Happy Days episode where a water-skiing Fonzie actually jumps a shark.

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“It never bothered me because we were a hit many years after that phrase came out,” said Winkler. “So I never really connected it with a negative.”

Winkler says he draws a multi-generational group at these events. There are the lovers of Happy Days who want to ask about the jacket, the hair and the cast gossip. Then there are the fans from his work in the movie Scream and regular guest-starring turns in the TV shows Parks and Recreation and Arrested Development, the later of which Winkler just wrapped his episodes for the new season.

Winkler is also an author, along with Lin Oliver, of a whole bunch of kid’s books surrounding the adventures of Hank Zipzer, a fourth grader with dyslexia. Winkler himself is dyslexic.

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So add kids to his Fan Expo demo.

“They say ‘how did you know me so well?'” said Winkler about the talking with kids. “I tell them I’m them. I know what it feels like.”

Winkler did his first fan expo around 40 years ago. While he can’t remember the exact year he does remember it was in Detroit at a car show and after three and half days (he was held over due popular demand) he had an injury to contend with.

“I think 175,000 people showed up,” said Winkler. “I remember I put my hand on ice because I have never shaken so many hands at one time. The bones in my hand were crushed. But I was astonished and grateful by the love that I received.”

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While Winkler is likely best known as the Fonz he has a robust and diverse career that includes onscreen and off screen credits, including producing the original Vancouver-shot MacGyver.

While TV is his mainstay check out the movies Heroes and Night Shift, two wonderful films he made while Happy Days was on the air.

“As soon as Happy Days finished I was asked to be a Fonz-like character or I wasn’t asked at all because I was typecast,” said Winkler. “It was my job to figure out how to work my way out of that.”

Winkler, you could say, cracked that code and while he still honours his early greaser pal he doesn’t dwell. Heck he doesn’t have time for that.

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“I’m so grateful for my career,” said Winkler. “I am executive producing three shows and acting in two shows. I have just written the 34th novel with my partner. That I get to do all this I don’t know, I never get over the shock.”

Winkler sees Fan Expos and similar events as just part of the circle that is his creative life. He dives full in to the events. While others sit behind tables and nod and grin, Winkler says he prefers the personal touch. You’ll find him standing in front of the singing table, ready and eager to talk to the fans he says he really does enjoy.

“We are all on this planet together and I know it makes the circle complete,” said Winkler. “I can have a dream. I can get a job. I can work as hard as I can at the job. If the other half of the circle doesn’t show up I go home.

“If you think you are a major star and think that you are better than Swiss cheese your career will go down in flames because eventually the arrogance will come through and make the audience run from you like you are bad breath,” added Winkler. “It is easier to be nice and not only that it is right to be nice.”

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